Ali Nasir Muhammad

Ali Nasir Muhammad (1939-) was the ruler of South Yemen from 2 August 1971 to 24 January 1986, succeeding Muhammad Ali Haitham and preceding Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas. He held the posts of Prime Minister, Chairman of the Presidenial Council, and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Council from the 1970s into the 1980s, but he was overthrown in 1986, starting the South Yemen Civil War.

Biography
Ali Nasir Muhammad was born in 1939 in Yemen, and he was a member of the National Liberation Front before he helped in founding the Yemeni Socialist Party in 1978. Muhammad became Prime Minister of South Yemen on 2 August 1971, holding this title for fourteen years; from June to December 1978 and from April 1980 to January 1986 he served as the de facto president. His rule came to an end after a party divide in 1986, and former Minister of Defense Ali Antar led a coup against him. While Antar was killed in the coup, the South Yemen Civil War continued for two weeks, leaving 10,000 dead and 60,000 displaced. Muhammad's followers and 15,000 other fleeing South Yemenis waited at the border with North Yemen to strike back, and in 1994 he asked for the people to support North Yemen against South Yemen in the Reunification of Yemen to get revenge for his ouster. Muhammad had a small role in politics in his later years, being considered as a possible transitional leader of Yemen after the February 2015 revolution by the Houthis.